Dontavious Young is betting on the next generation. As founder of Equal Minded Café and the Big Ideas Foundation, Young is creating space for high school students to build businesses, find purpose, and take ownership of their futures.
“I want to be someone who kids remember their whole life,” Young said. “Almost everyone has an educator they remember who said one thing to them; one thing that changed everything.”
“Being that person for the youth is the best way to make change.”
Today marks the seventh anniversary of Equal Minded Café, the coffee shop and community hub that now serves as the heartbeat of Young’s mission to uplift youth and reimagine education beyond the classroom.
That vision recently received a major boost. Through a Kiva Kansas City microloan campaign, Young quickly raised $15,000, the maximum amount allowed on the crowdfunding capital platform. The money will help him hire staff, grow educational programming, and ultimately reach even more students, he said.
Click here to check out the details of Equal Minded Café’s successful campaign.
Dontavious Young works on a customer’s drink order in August 2024 at Equal Minded Cafe; photo by Taylor Wilmore, Startland News
Kiva Kansas City provides zero-interest microloans to entrepreneurs who often face barriers accessing traditional funding, helping small businesses grow through community-backed lending.
“We always need more funds,” Young said. “To pay for inventory, educators, different classes we want to offer on top of just coffee — financial literacy, for example — hiring a chief development officer and a chief program officer. That would allow everything to run smoothly.”
Classroom to college credit
Launched in 2023, the Big Ideas Foundation offers a structured entrepreneurship curriculum tailored for high school students. The program emphasizes social entrepreneurship, teaching young people how to build businesses that also serve their communities.
“The course we offer was originally built to be in schools full time, the entire year,” Young said. “The goal is to get it accredited so students get college credits for finishing, maybe up to 12 credits.”
That head start, he said, can help steer students toward local colleges, and eventually, back to the neighborhoods that raised them.
“We’re thinking these students, who go through our program and go to local colleges, will return to their neighborhoods and start businesses that improve their communities,” Young said.
Big Ideas has already partnered with local schools like De La Salle, where students are actively learning to turn ideas into real ventures.
Fueling future founders
One of the program’s most hands-on offerings is its youth roasting program, where students learn how to roast their own coffee beans, build unique coffee brands, and create personal income streams.
“They’re not just learning how to make coffee,” Young explained. “They’re learning how to own the process, to build something that’s theirs, and to understand every part of the supply chain.”
Through this program, students are also exposed to wholesale operations, branding, and marketing, essential tools for building a business that lasts.
At the core of this foundation is Young’s belief in the power and potential of young people. He feels that ignoring youth in favor of early childhood programs, which receive significant investment, leaves a dangerous gap.
“We invest so much in early childhood education,” he said. “But then around middle school, there’s no more support. That’s why we have violence problems. We have an extreme juvenile problem, but nobody wants to face that.”
Confidence takes the stage
The foundation’s first public event, just months after launching, included a student panel discussion that left a lasting impression.
“We were on the news for our first initiative,” Young said. “A student panel discussion where kids went on stage and talked about the businesses they started.”
Four students were selected from 20 applicants and received $250 stipends, laptops, marketing support, and more to fuel their entrepreneurial journeys.
“That right there, it sounds so simple to us as adults,” Young said. “But to them, that’s the highlight of the decade. They’re going to remember that for the next 20 years and believe in themselves because they were chosen.”
Dontavious Young, Equal Minded Cafe; photo by Taylor Wilmore, Startland News
Cheers to change
Beyond the classroom, Young also brings people together through an annual fundraiser called Toast for Teachers, a bar crawl that celebrates educators while sparking real conversations around the future of education.
“Bringing teachers into these spaces gets business owners thinking differently,” he said. “You might change your political views because you have teachers in your space all the time talking about specific things. That’s how we build more of a hive mind, in a way.”
It’s part celebration, part community-building, and very much part of Young’s larger vision for collaboration across sectors.
Brewing student-led businesses
Young envisions a future where coffee shops across the country are managed, and owned, by students who’ve completed the Big Ideas program. Such spaces would serve real customers, generate real revenue, and offer hands-on business training every day.
“Workers and owners at the same time,” he explained. “If a new cohort wants to change the name, the business structure, the pay, they can do that. It teaches them how to run a business and be leaders.”
He imagines the model spreading beyond Kansas City, where students need to see what’s possible. Even if his name isn’t attached to every success, Young said the ripple effect is enough.
“If I can impact youth, and they go on and impact others, and they do it in the name of something I inspired them to do … that’s how I have impact,” he said.
